George Walford: Doctor

Doctor Ann Dally made herself unpopular with the more orthodox medicos by providing heroin addicts with methadone as a substitute, maintaining the dosage until they felt able to renounce their habit. In reviewing her book (A Doctor’s Story, London: Macmillan) J. F. Watkins suggests that if her method were officially adopted and addicts charged, say, ten pounds for each prescription, the NHS would benefit greatly, and drug-related crime and AIDS disappear. (TLS 20 April 90)